Several candidates remain as committee narrows field

The search committee charged with the task of finding former Dean of Student Life Janina Montero's successor has narrowed the field of applicants to about six, Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62 said in the U-Council meeting yesterday.

Wright referred to the new position as "chief of student affairs," though he added the committee still is considering alternate titles for the post.

He also said the committee is discussing the exact role and responsibilities that will be associated with the new administrative position.

The search committee — which consists of four undergraduate students, one graduate student, four faculty members and three administrators — is "very strongly represented by members of different areas of student life," according to Wright.

"It's a group of people who care a lot about student life at Princeton, and who know a lot about student life at Princeton," Wright added.

The committee originally received about 70 nominations and applications for the student life administrator's position. Wright said committee members "reached a collective view of which candidates seemed the most interesting to pursue."

"The candidates of the first round were all very impressive," said Spencer Merriweather '00, one of the students on the committee.

During the past two weeks, the committee has conducted phone interviews with most of the applicants and invited several to campus for in-person interviews. The group is trying to narrow the list further before inviting the candidates back to campus to meet with students, health center officials, athletics heads and the masters of the residential colleges, Wright said.

Formal duties

The committee is still determining the specific duties for which Montero's successor will be responsible. "I think we're trying to combine all the strengths of Dean Montero's position, in terms of bringing departments together," Merriweather said. "As far as the new position, we're trying to make it more consensus building. Dean Montero had a wonderful start, and the new candidate will hopefully build on that," he said.

Merriweather added that the new position would have most of the responsibilities and authority of the original Dean of Student Life post. However, he explained that the new office would be slightly more administrative in nature because it would involve coordinating student-related issues and faculty interaction with students.

The committee also has discussed the possibility of making the position a vice presidency, Wright said. "In the original announcement seeking applications, we said 'chief of student affairs' on purpose," he noted.

"We wanted to talk with the candidates about what the position's title would be, and we've gotten several different responses on what they think. It's been an interesting factor in determining between them."

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Wright said the committee plans to have finished the search process by late February or early March, adding that the next round of interviews might start as early as next week.

A report on the committee's progress will be available on the CPUC Webpage today at www.princeton.edu/~vp/cpuc/index.html. "The report is going to serve as a framework for the search," Wright said.